John Doe Rights in Question/arraignment

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ARRAINGMENT

A criminal proceeding at which the defendant is officially called before a court of competent jurisdiction, informed of the offense charged in the complaint, information, indictment, or other charging document, and asked to enter a plea of guilty, not guilty, or as otherwise permitted by law. Depending on the jurisdiction, arraignment may also be the proceeding at which the court determines whether to set bail for the defendant or release the defendant on his or her own recognizance. But if the offender is not found by reason of insanity, the trail will take place. Also at an arraignment the accused is read his Miranda Rights again, so that the accused understands his charges and the court proceedings. All offenders have this right to be arraigned after a filing of an indictment. The accused as the right to enter a plea of guilty, not guilty, nolo contendere, not guilty of insanity former jeopardy or former judgment of acquittal of conviction.

The Sixth Amendment to U.S. Constitution guarantees that defendants shall "be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation against them." But the Sixth Amendment does not guarantee defendants the right to be informed of the charged offense at an arraignment. Although the Supreme Court has ruled that arraignments are a necessary pre-condition to trial under federal law, the Court has also ruled that failure to arraign a defendant is not a reversible error where the failure is inadvertent, the defendant knows that he is the accused, the defendant is apprised of the charged offense, the defendant is able to assist in preparing a defense, and the defendant is not otherwise prejudiced by the lack of an arraignment. Thus the importance and necessity of being arraigned before trial varies from case to case and from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The law governing arraignment procedures is spelled out by statutes and court rules at both the state and federal levels. (Legal-dictionary 1856)

Reference

Burton’s Legal Thesaurus: Arraignment. (n.d.) Burton’s Legal Thesaurus, 4TH Edition. (2007).

Retrieved August 9 2010 from http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/arraignment

Procedures in the Justice System, Eighth Edition, by Cliff Robertson, Harvey Wallace, and

Gilbert Stuckey. (2007). Retrieved August 9, 2010